Industry output growth slows to 3.1% in April

Industrial production growth slipped to 3.1 per cent in April due to poor show by manufacturing, mining and power sectors coupled with lower offtake of capital goods and consumer durables.

The factory output measured in terms of the index of industrial production (IIP) had expanded by 6.5 per cent in April last year, the data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Monday showed.

The CSO also revised upwards the IIP growth figure for March to 3.75 per cent from provisional estimate of 2.7 per cent released last month.

According to the CSO data, manufacturing sector, which constitutes 77.63 per cent of the index, grew at 2.6 per cent in April compared to 5.5 per cent in same month last year.

Similarly, mining sector output grew at 4.2 per cent in the month under review compared to 6.7 year ago. Power generation rose by 5.4 per cent in April, down from 14.4 per cent expansion in April last year.

The output of capital goods, which are the barometer of investment in the country, contracted by 1.3 per cent in April compared to growth of 8.1 per cent a year ago.

Similarly, consumer durables or white goods production declined by 6 per cent in April against 13.8 per cent growth a year ago.

As per use-based classification, the growth rates in April 2017 over April 2016 are 3.4 per cent in primary goods, 4.6 per cent in intermediate goods and 5.8 per cent in infrastructure/ construction goods.

The consumer non-durables have recorded a growth rate of 8.3 per cent. Consumer goods overall grew at 5.8 per cent. In terms of industries, 14 out of 23 industry groups in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth in April 2017 compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.

The industry group manufacture of pharmaceuticals, medicinal chemical and botanical products has shown the highest growth of 29.1 per cent followed by 17.9 per cent in manufacture of tobacco products and 9.5 per cent in manufacture of machinery and equipment . On the other hand, the industry group manufacture of beverages has shown the highest negative growth of (-) 19.2 per cent followed by (-) 15.6 per cent in manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers and (-) 14.4 per cent in manufacture of electrical equipment.